The case describes the competitive nature of consumer electronics retailing and Best Buy's journey through some struggles to a more stable situation. The role of customer experience is also described. Best Buy still remains a mostly brick-and-mortar retailers. Brands such as Apple and Samsung have their own stores. Amazon is formidable online, with Walmart catching up quickly. Best Buy would like to grow and continue to be the category leader.

Questions

1. Provide an analysis of the competition in this category.
2. What initiatives did Best Buy take to improve its customer experience?
3. Identify two strategic options (not short-term tactics) that would enable Best Buy to both grow its online business and remain the category leader. Evaluate these two options using relevant criteria, and then recommend one of the options with appropriate justification.

June I l. 2019. Best Buy (HEY) appoints Corie Barry as CEO from her prior CFO position to replace Hubert Joly. who served as CEO since Hill and remains as chairman of the board.' Since 2014. Best Buy's stock perfor- mance has exceeded the Stir? 500, but it has lagged behind Amazon-a rm that has redened retail. Exhibit 1 depicts a stock price comparison of retailers from 2014 to July 2019. Best Buy's performance reects a stark contrast from many retailers that have declared or are facing bankruptcy. such as RadioShaclt. Sears. and Toys-RUs. The strategy developed by Hubert Joly was to engage customers in \"high touch\" products that allow customers to interact with competitively priced products. including private label brands. Further, Best Buy offers complements. such as recycling and in-home installation, to further engage with customers. The result was a clear value proposition reected in the slogan \"Expert Service. Unbeatable Prices."2 The strategic initiativc's past success is reected in Best Buy's performance, and Hubert Joly's selection as the "retailer of the year" by Forbes for 2016.3 Still, Corie Barry faces multiple challenges, including being the young- est CEO of a S&.P 500 company and one of the few women to run a Fortune till company. In addition. Best Buy continues to face considerable held winds} Competition in the consumenelectmnics industry remains cut-throat. While Ecst Buy is no longer considered doomed to follow other national consumer electronics retail superstores into extinction, several concerns suggest it will be harder for Best Buy to meet expectations for continued performance. First, Best Buy may simply have received a temporary boost due to struggles by other traditional retailers. Second, Best Buy depends on consumer electronics, a product category increasingly caught up in U.S.China trade tensions that do not appear to have an easier or quick resolutionf" T Third. five suppliers (Apple. Samsung. Hewlett-Packard, Sony and LG) supply Best Buy with over half its inventory}; Best Buy actively partners with its suppliers. For example, Best Buy pioneered the \"store within a store" concept with Samsung in 20\" to highlight Samsung products within Best Buy locations.\" The expansion of this program to other rms (cg. Microsoft and Apple} adds another source of revenue for its stores. but it also increases Best Buy's dependence on suppliers. Fourth. retail continues to change as people adapt to technology and relationships between retailers, customers, and manufacturers adapt. '0 Best Buy's \"high touch\" approach to retail rests on attracting and retaining qualified employees, and this may hurt protability if automa- tion by competitors is successfuL\" In support of seeing continued challenges for Best Buy, roughly 70 percent of inside stock trades by executives at Best Bay were sales of shares (rather than buying of shares}.[1 At the same time, Amazon remains a formidable competitor in the electronics retail industry. For example. Amazon has begun offering in-horne consultation with its digital assistant Alexa hosted on its Echo speakers. By comparison, Best Buy does not offer a digital assistant that may substitute for its trained sales staff. Amazon is also creating increased physical presence through the expansion of warehouses.\" its purchase of Whole Foods, and partnering with Kohls and Rite Aid for returns." While the purchase of Whole Foods by Amazon drove grocery chain companies stock lower, '5 it also gives Amazon a physical presence where customers will be able to pick up